Understanding the spread of images across the web helps us understand the reuse of scientific visualizations and their relationship with the public. The "Flatten the Curve" graphic was heavily used during the COVID-19 pandemic to convey a complex concept in a simple form. It displays two curves comparing the impact on case loads for medical facilities if the populace either adopts or fails to adopt protective measures during a pandemic. We use five variants of the "Flatten the Curve" image as a case study for viewing the spread of an image online. To evaluate its spread, we leverage three information channels: reverse image search engines, social media, and web archives. Reverse image searches give us a current view into image reuse. Social media helps us understand a variant's popularity over time. Web archives help us see when it was preserved, highlighting a view of popularity for future researchers. Our case study leverages document URLs can be used as a proxy for images when studying the spread of images online.

翻译：理解图像在互联网上的传播有助于认识科学可视化图像的重用及其与公众的关系。新冠疫情期间，"拉平曲线"图像被广泛用于以简洁形式传达复杂概念。该图通过两条曲线对比反映民众在疫情期间采取或不采取防护措施对医疗机构病例负荷的影响。本研究以五张"拉平曲线"变体图像为案例，考察图像在网络中的传播轨迹。为评估其传播特征，我们利用三种信息渠道：反向图像搜索引擎、社交媒体及网络存档。反向图像搜索可提供图像重用的实时视图；社交媒体有助于追踪变体图像的历时流行度；网络存档则能揭示图像被保存的时间节点，为未来研究者保留流行度视角。本案例研究证明，当研究网络图像传播时，文档URL可作为图像的代理指标。